When Hiccup Died
by Diamond Rogue
Summary: ...Most people didn't expect him to come back.


Author's Note: Happy Halloween everybody! Here's a quick little oneshot exploring some spoooooky possibilities! As a warning, characters _might_ display some symptoms of PTSD, so if you're sensitive to that you might want to turn away now! Halloween heart-attacks are reserved for over-realistic haunted house decorations only! Now, onto the show!

-Carly

Astrid growled to herself as she sat in the dragon-killing arena as the sun lowered heavily into the ocean. If only that stupid Hiccup hadn't swept her off on that stupid flight, if only he hadn't completely screwed up with the monstrous nightmare, if only...

If only he hadn't died a hero.

Patting the deadly nadder she'd affectionately named Stormfly on the neck, she climbed onto the saddle and tried training it.

"Up, Stormfly!" She commanded. Sure enough up they went, but the rest of the commands were a bit harder to master. As the dragon beneath her nearly all but ignored the rest of her directions, Astrid covered her face and growled again, louder this time. "How did he make it look so easy?!" She yelled as the two of them lapped over the ocean for the fifteenth time that day. Convincing the dragon- _her_ dragon- to land on a sea stack, Astrid looked to the rosy horizon as she remembered the aftermath of the fight against the giant red death all those months ago.

Everyone saw him get killed in the explosion. She remembered the chief holding his son's limp, lifeless body. The agony on his stinking night fury's face as it nudged and warbled at his corpse, as if begging him to not be dead. The stench of his blood, coppery and sickening on the wind. She remembered how she and the other teens clung to their own dragons, as if their presence could undo what just happened.

They couldn't even get his body away from the night fury after chief Stoic set him down. After minimal discussion, they decided not to give the feared legendary dragon reason to disregard his name. Watching it carry him off was too much, and even she had to turn away.

Shaking off the memories, Astrid saw that it was now night, the sky a deep indigo and speckled with stars. Also, her dragon was carrying her in the opposite direction of Berk.

"Stormfly!" She yelled at the dragon. "Turn around!" She was ignored as they picked up speed, crossing the ocean faster than before. Before she even knew it, they were back where the red death was defeated, the island now teeming with plants and life. Abandoned shatters of driftwood from Berk's own ships was jutting out from the shore, covered in flowering vines as if in salute. Quickly climbing down from the dragon that brought her here, Astrid began to reprimand the uninterested nadder.

"Why did you bring me back _here_ of all places?!" She asked loudly, pacing the beach. Stormfly simply walked off towards the caves where the feared queen used to reside, covered in moss and more of the flowering vines. Before walking in, she looked back to Astrid as if asking to be joined. Running to catch up, Astrid followed the dragon through the caves, until coming across a campsite that seemingly was still in use. The fire had only recently been put out, and belongings consisting of rock tools and sticks littered the cavern floor. A chill raced down her spine as her eyes fell to a darkened lump in the corner. As it shifted, she recognised it as the same night fury that made away with the corpse of the one viking to understand dragons.

"Toothless?" She whispered, and said dragons ears and body perked in response to its name. As it stood, though, the horrible stench of decay filled the air. Toothless had been laying on another lump, and as the dragon arose, so did the lump. Astrid gasped as the form of the assumed dead heir to Berk rose from underneath the wing of the night fury. He looked around, before his glazed-over eyes met hers.

"Astrid?" He asked in disbelief, as if she were the one that died. He suddenly hurried to stand. "What are you doing here?"

"Stormfly brought me." The tears that began to well in her eyes were from the stench if you asked. "We saw you die! How are you alive right now?!" She practically screamed at him as he slowly dragged himself closer. His skin was paler than ever, and going green in some spots. He grimmaced at the word 'alive'.

"That's the thing..." He trailed off, rubbing at a burnt and malformed spot on his wrist.

"What? What is it Hiccup?!" Astrid goaded mercilessly.

"I'm not." He said, flinching when she reeled back. "Haven't been for a long, long while now." Astrid reached for Stormfly tentatively as she stepped back.

"How... How is this even possible?" She whispered, finally giving her shocked vocal chords a rest. Hiccup fell back onto Toothless' back, saddle weathered and off-kilter.

"I... I can't..." He choked. "Please... I can't tell you."

"Why not? Why can't you tell me?" She pleaded. Toothless glared at her as Hiccup slid to the ground.

"It... It hurts too much..." He groaned, clutching his head. Dropping onto the ground across from the deceased boy, Astrid let her own head drop.

"If you can't tell me, who can?" She asked.

Toothless looked up suddenly, gently helped Hiccup to his feet, then began walking out of the cave system, stopping at the mouth of the current cavern. Stormfly followed as Astrid stood, glancing back, beckoning to her silently once again.

Hiccup didn't waste a second ambling slowly to his best friend. Astrid got up and followed as well. As they walked, the thoughts in Astrid's head grew restless. To fill the deafening silence broken only by the shuffling of feet, she decided to ask a few more questions.

"So..." She started. "What's it like being..."

"Dead?" Hiccup cut in, sighing.

"Yeah."

"It's... Empty." He explained sadly. "I don't breathe anymore. Or eat. I don't have to." He laughed, a short huffing sound. "Sounds like a pretty stupid thing to miss, right?" Astrid could only hum in acknowledgement. There was no other response. Hiccup broke the air once again with his own question. "How is everyone? Back home, I mean."

"It's... Okay. We're trying to train dragons." She said gesturing to Stormfly ahead. "But... We can't do it like you could." She looked at Hiccup, who was focused straight ahead. All of his movements were slow and blocky like that. "Are you... Okay?"

"Besides being dead?" He parried with a hint of snideness.

"You know that's not what I meant. Your walking is weird!" Hiccup didn't skip a beat in his response.

"If I move too fast, I fall apart."

"What?! How do you-" Astrid was cut off by a sickeningly loud snap as Hiccup suddenly held his left arm in his right hand.

"See what I mean?" He shoved his arm back in place with another crack. Astrid held back the contents of her stomach as she watched.

"That is absolutely disgusting." She told him. He just laughed that sick breathless sound again. They had reached the cave opening again, and the night sky greeted them with a gust of freezing air. Wrapping her arms around herself to keep warm, another question came to mind. "Aren't you cold?"

"Can't feel anything." Hiccup said curtly.

"Right." The dragons motioned for them to climb on, but while Astrid complied readily, Hiccup faltered. "What's the matter?"

"Toothless and I haven't gone flying since..." He trailed off, clutching his head again as if in pain. Toothless took to his side again, nudging softly with his head until the dead boy willingly climbed on.

"You up for this? We have no idea where they're taking us." Astrid asked, pulling Hiccup out of his daze.

"It doesn't look like we have a choice." He replied as both dragons took off.

In the skies, it was like Hiccup was a different person. He confidently pulled Toothless through several flawless flips and stunts, smiling the entire time. They raced eachother wordlessly, and despite trailing closely behind, Astrid found that she didn't mind in the slightest that she was losing. Her mind wasn't even on the race, it was just her and Stormfly moving a a single unit through the expanse of the night. When Toothless and Hiccup slowed enough to let them catch up side by side, her face was red from the biting wind and she was grinning ear to ear.

"Hey Hiccup?" She called over the howl of rushing air. "I think I get it now!" Hiccup's laugh was still beathless, but decidedly more genuine and less hollow. The dragons dived for ground suddenly and landed on all too familiar ground.

Astrid swore under her breath as she recognized Berk, home soil etched into her mind like a sixth sense. Looking over, she saw Hiccup frozen on his dragon, somehow managing to look paler than earlier despite being dead. The good mood verily killed like the teen on the night fury, Astrid dismounted and briskly checked for witnesses. With the coast clear, she checked back in with the reanimated heir.

"Hiccup!" She whisper-shouted. "Snap out of it already!" When he didn't respond, she got an idea. Walking over to Hiccup, she grabbed his leg and pulled at the rotting limb until it popped off.

"H-hey!" He stumbled off Toothless' saddle, using the dragon for support. "I need that!" Astrid willingly threw it back at him, afterwards brushing her hands off on her skirt.

"Are you going to just sit there, or are you going to help me come up with a plan?" She asked, crossing her arms. He snapped his leg back in place after mumbling an apology. Looking into the shadows of Berk past midnight, Astrid tried to think of any explanation why they brought Hiccup back. Suddenly, Hiccup hit himself in the head.

"The dragons brought us here after you asked for someone who could tell you what happened to me!" He exclaimed.

"So that means... Someone here on Berk knows!" Astrid followed. "But who..." She trailed off, accidentally yawning.

Sure enough, the sun began rising. Astrid scowled at the bright daylight, but when she kooked at Hiccup she realised something. He caught her staring, and raised his brow slightly.

"What?" He asked.

"They're gonna see you. If they panic, we're dead." She said. Hiccup put his hand up to stop her.

"If they see _you_ with me we're dead." Astrid shook her head in disbelief.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" She asked, raising her voice.

"It means I can handle this on my own. Go home, get some sleep-" Astrid cut him off.

"No way! If you honestly believe i'm going to just let you go in there alone without any idea what might happen, so help me Thor-" she shouted before Hiccup interrupted her.

"I handled the Queen just fine!" He rebutted, now also shouting.

"YOU _DIED_!" She yelled, before storming off. She only looked back once, to make sure Stormfly was following. By the time she started paying attention to her surroundings again, they were back in the cove she first found Hiccup hiding Toothless in.

Toothless. That stupid dragon was the reason all of this happened in the first place. If only someone, anyone, had managed to just keep Hiccup inside that night, he wouldn't have managed to down a night fury and train the thing.

"Stupid life-changing..." Astrid mumbled some obscenities under her breath, and punched a tree. When she had calmed down, the knuckles of her fists were cut up and the forest had one less undisturbed tree. Stormfly snuffed at her, as if to tell her, 'hey, you should probably not do that'. Astrid groaned and walked over to pat the nadder over the snout. "Why does this have to be so... Complicated?" She asked, knowing there would be no response. "He died, and that was it! That's all there was to it!" There was so much more than him dying. "Why did he have to come back? Come back... Wait." She suddenly stepped back from Stormfly. "Hiccup! We just _left_ him back there! We have to go back, now!" She leaped onto her dragon in record time, and they took to the sky immediately.

It took just a few minutes to get back to where they were, but when they arrived neither Hiccup or Toothless were anywhere to be found. Swearing again, Astrid looked about, frantically searching the area.

"Where would he be?" She wasn't panicking. Stormfly crooned at her gently, willing her to calm down. Heaving a breath, she silently allowed her dragon to take control. As Stormfly seemed to know exactly what needed to be done recently, she didn't object. The nadder took to the air once more.

They found them just barely outside of town, both looking worse for wear. Upon landing, human and once-human made specific points of not talking to eachother. Until the dragons whacked them over the heads with wing and prosthetic tailfin respectively.

"Ow! Ugh, alright." Astrid rubbed her head and adressed the elephant in the room. "I'm sorry for... That." She mumbled. Hiccup nodded and toed the ground.

"Me too." They sat in silence for a while. "You know, you never did tell me how everyone's doing." He said.

"Who do you wanna know about?" She asked.

"You know... Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, Gobber..." He trailed off, voice seemingly caught in his throat. "My dad..."

"Right." She started. "Snot and the twins have been pretty normal about things. They haven't said anything about... What happened. Gobber and Chief Stoic just... Threw themselves into their work, and Fishlegs has just been reading nonstop..." Hiccup laughed the older, depressing wheeze again.

"You don't think he's read about dead people coming back to life, do you?" He joked, but Astrid froze. "Uh... Astrid?"

"What if he has?!" She exclaimed, jumping up. "This could be it! Stay right here!" Hiccup threw his hand at her.

"Wait! How do you know he won't panic?!" He asked, collecting his hand off the ground and popping it back in.

"He won't have a choice!" And with that, she leapt back onto Stormfly and set out looking for him.

Fishlegs wasn't difficult to find per se, as he was typically holed up in some corner reading, with new Gronkle friend in tow. He was at the arena, reading the same book they recieved in training. Landing and quickly pulling him away from prying eyes, she got in his face.

"We need your help."

"We? Who's we?" He asked, still disoriented from her assault.

"Promise me you won't freak out when I tell you." She quickly tacked on. "Or else."

"Ok ok! I promise!" He said, holding his hands up defensively. Astrid took a deep breath.

"Hiccup isn't dead anymore and we need your help figuring out why." She spouted when she let her breath out. Fishlegs just sat there in stunned silence. Waving her hand in front of his face, she groaned and grabbed his arm. "Come on, it's easier to explain with him there!"

They got back to Hiccup soon after, and when he explained his side of the story to Fishlegs, the other boy was eager to help.

"I actually have read something about this! Who'd have thought, right?" He gushed. "I thought it was just some old legend to scare kids, but would you look at that!" He gestured to Hiccup excitedly. "A real zombie!"

"Zombie?" Hiccup asked.

"An undead creature born from the corpse of someone with unfinished business in the world of the living!" Fishlegs explained. "This is so cool!" Before he could go on any longer, Astrid butt in.

"So all we have to do is figure out what his unfinished business is, right? What do you remember?" She asked Hiccup. He suddenly got really quiet, and wrung his wrists, accidentally popping one off to the disgust of Astrid and amazement of Fishlegs.

"All I can think of is when my dad... Disowned me..." He trailed off, popping his hand back into place and using it to rub behind Toothless' ears. Astrid nodded.

"I'd want the approval of my family before I died too." Fishlegs stated kindly.

"Alright then, let's get you to the chief!" Astrid determinedly adressed the zombie.

"What?! After everything, you think he'll just accept me?!" He yelled, steping backwards and nearly tripping over his own dragon. "Especially now that i'm... Like this?" He muttered the last part. Before Astrid could say anything, Fishlegs suddenly stepped forewards.

"Are you kidding me, Hiccup?! Chief Stoic hasn't been the same ever since you died! I overheard him and Gobber talking about how that disowning you was one of the last things he said to you! He'll never admit it, but he's heartbroken. He'd kill for the chance to make things right, so why won't you?" When he finished, he was breathing heavily.

"Fishlegs, I..." Hiccup started. "Thank you." He said, emotion clouding his voice. Astrid was sure if he could cry he would've.

"...Yeah" was the bigger teen's only response. Astrid broke the silence once more, determined now more than ever to help.

"So, how do we get Hiccup into the village without people noticing him?" She asked.

"If he could detatch all his limbs, we could take him in piece by piece." Fishlegs offered, but Hiccup and Astrid turned that idea down quickly.

"I'd rather stay in one piece, thanks." Hiccup said sheepishly.

"I'd also rather he stay in one piece." Astrid mirrored. Just then, the dragons roughhousing playfully caught her attention. "What if the dragons caused a distraction?" The boys considered this one carefully.

"That could work." Hiccup said.

"Then lets go!" They each got on their dragons and set up their distraction; Toothless was going to pull his classic 'night fury, get down' trick.

It actually worked. The entire village was distracted enough to sneak Hiccup back into his own house.

"Do you want us to stick around? In case?" Fishlegs asked Hiccup gently. He shook his head.

"You've both already helped out so much... I think I can handle this." He replied, smiling, though somehow still looking sad. Astrid punched his shoulder before leaving, Fishlegs close behind.

Of course they just hid nearby to eavesdrop. When the chief got home, at first there was only silence, but they later heard them taking, and peeking through a hole in the door Astrid saw the two embrace.

Things were going to be ok, she thought.


End file.
